| If you have a car, you could explore several of the marvellous Romanesque churches within easy reach of Saintes. In FENIOUX, 29km to the north towards St-Jean-d'Angély, there's the superb church of St-Eutrope with its mighty spire, while the church at RIOUX, 12km to the south, is well worth visiting for its detailed facade. There's also the fine Château of Roche-Courbon, 18km northwest off the Rochefort road – once described as the Sleeping Beauty's castle – with some stylish interiors and gardens. One place worth any amount of trouble to get to is the twelfth-century pilgrim church of St-Pierre at AULNAY, 37km northeast of Saintes, and sadly not served by public transport. Aulnay church's finest sculpture is on the west front, the south transept and apse, with some more fine work inside. On the building's main facade, two blind arches flank the central portal. The tympanum of the right depicts Christ in Majesty; the left, St Peter, crucified upside down with two extraordinarily lithe and graceful soldiers balancing on the arms of his cross to get a better swing at the nails in his feet. On the south side, the doorway is decorated with four bands of even more intricate carving. The apse, too, is a beauty, framed by five slender columns and lit by three perfectly arched windows, the centre one enclosed by figures wrapped in the finest twining foliage. Inside, there is more extraordinary carving: capitals depicting Delilah cutting Samson's hair, devils pulling a man's beard, human-eared elephants, bearing the Latin inscription Hic sunt elephantes, "Here are elephants" – presumably for the edification of ignorant locals. You might also like to visit NUAILLÉ-SUR-BOUTONNE, 9km west of Aulnay, which boasts another remarkable church; and, even nearer just down the D129 east of Aulnay, you can walk to SALLES-LES-AULNAY (20min), or ST-MANDÉ (1hr), with humbler churches of the same period.
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